Bottle transporter



March 1967 E. F. ROWEKAMP BOTTLE TRANSPORTER 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Feb. 18, 1965 M main BY g 7 WM Armemsys.

March 28, 1967 E. F. ROWEKAMP 3,311,400

BOTTLE TRANSPORTER Filed Feb. 18, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 I NVEN TOR.

- w gmw,

745 MZMJAM 65M United States Patent 3,311,400 BOTTLE TRANSPGRTER Edward F. Rowekamp, Cincinnati, Ohio, assignor to The Lodge 8; Shipley Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, :1 corporation of Ohio Filed Feb. 18, 1965, Ser. No. 433,570 8 Claims. (Cl. 294-64) This invention relates to a bottle transporter and, more particularly, to a device for transporting bottles of varying heights from one position to another while retaining the bottoms of the bottles in a single plane.

When empty bottles are returned to a retail outlet, for example, the bottles are stored in carrying cases or cartons. Often these bottles are placed in the cases at random so that any carrying case, which normally contains twenty-four bottles, may have bottles of many different heights.

When these carrying cases with bottles of different heights are returned to the bottling plant, it is necessary to remove the bottles from the carrying case or carton and place them on a conveyor line or other support structure where they may be sorted, cleaned, and refilled. While the bottles could be removed from the carrying case or carton and placed on the conveyor line manually, this is a time consuming operation.

One apparatus for transferring bottles from a carrying case is shown in US. Patent 2,873,996 to McHugh. The aforesaid McHugh patent transfers bottles, which have the same height, from the carrying case or carton to a conveyor line. However, the device of the aforesaid McHugh patent is not capable of transferring bottles of varying heights from the carrying case or carton to the conveyor line since it cannot maintain the bottoms of the bottles of varying heights in the same plane. Of course, it is necessary to maintain the bottoms of the bottles in the same plane in order that they may be deposited on the conveyor line simultaneously.

It the device of the aforesaid McHugh patent were employed to transfer bottles of varying heights, the apparatus could lift all of the bottles from the carrying case or carton. However, the bottoms of the bottles wouid be in various planes so that release of the bottles by the device of the aforesaid McHugh patent would cause some to be dropped on the conveyor line when the tallest bottle had its bottom touching the conveyor line. Thus, the bottles would topple over when released for positioning on the conveyor line.

The present invention satisfactorily solves this problem by maintaining the bottoms of all of the bottle in the same plane as they are lifted from the carrying case and transported to the conveyor line. The present invention is an improvement of the device disclosed in the aforesaid McI-Iugh patent.

The attached drawings illustrate a preferred embodiment in which:

FIGURE 1 is a side elevational view, partly in section, of a device for lifting a bottle with the device having its lifting or pick-up cup disposed in contact with the bottle.

FIGURE 2 is a side elevational view, partly in section, showing the structure of FIGURE 1 with the lifting or pick-up cup grasping the bottle.

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged sectional view of a portion of the structure of FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 4 is an end elevational view illustrating the present invention prior to being actuated for picking up bottles of varying heights from a carrying case or carton.

FIGURE 5 is an end elevational view showing the structure of FIGURE 4 with the lifting or pick-up cups grasping the bottles.

FIGURE 6 is an end elevational view showing the 3,3 l ifiiiifl Patented Mar. 28, 1967 travel of the bottles from the carrying case or carton to the conveyor line with the lifting device and the bottles shown in phantom in the position in which they are lifted from the carrying case or carton.

Referring to the drawings and particularly FIGURES 1 to 3, there is shown a bottle lifting or pick-up cup 10 of the type shown and described in the aforesaid Mc- Hugh patent. The cup 10 includes a plastic shell 11 having an internal flexible bladder 12.

The bladder 12 is inflated by a fluid, which is preferably air, to grasp a bottle 14 around its upper portion. The bladder 12 is supplied with the fluid through a flexible hose 15, which has one end connected to the upper end of the shell 11 in the manner shown and described in the aforesaid McHugh patent.

The other end of the flexible hose 15 is threadedly connected to the interior of a substantially rigid tubular member 16, which has a smaller outer diameter than the flexible hose 15. The other end of the substantially rigid tubular member 16 is connected to one end of a flexible hose 17, which has its other end connected to a fluid pressure manifold 18 (see FIGURE 5). Thus, air is supplied from the manifold 18 through the hose 17, the tubular member 16, and the hose 15 to inflate the bladder 12 as more particularly described in the aforesaid McHugh patent.

A cylindrical member 19 surrounds the substantially rigid tubular member 16 and has its lower end closed by a retaining member 2%, which surrounds the substantially rigid member 16 and supports an O-ring 21 for sealing the lower end of the cylindrical member 19. The retaining member is held in position at the lower end of the cylindrical member 19 by a nut 22.

The upper end of the cylindrical member 19 is closed by a retaining member 23, which surrounds the substantially rigid member 16 and supports an O-ring 24 for sealing the upper end of the cylindrical member 19. The retaining member 23 has a reduced portion 25, which extends upwardly above the cylindrical member 19 through an opening 26 in a head member 27. A nut 28 cooperates with threads on the exterior of the reduced portion to prevent downward movement of the retaining member 23 with respect to the cylindrical member 19. The upward movement of the retaining member 23 with respect to the cylindrical member 19 is limited by a retaining ring 29, which is disposed within an annular groove 30 (see FIGURE 3) in the inner wall of the cylindrical member 19.

The retaining member 23 has a second reduced portion 31 of the same outer diameter as a reduced portion 32 of the retaining member 20. A tubular member 33, which is formed of a flexible material and is preferably the plastice sold under the trademark Tygon, has its opposite ends fitted over the reduced portion 31 of the member 23 and the reduced portion 32 of the member 20 to form a tight fit therewith. The tubular member 33 and the cylindricalmember 19 cooperate to form a substantially annular chamber 34 therebetween.

The annular chamber 34 is connected to the manifold 18 through a conduit 35, which communicates withthe annular chamber 34 through a fitting 36. The fitting 36 secures the conduit to the cylindrical member 19.

The upper end of the reduced portion 25 of the retaining member 23 has a resilient bushing 37, which is preferably rubber, secured thereto. The bushing 37 functions as a bumper against a nut 38 on the substantiallp rigid tubular member 16 to limit relative downward movement of said member 16 with respect to the head 27. The uppermost position of member 16 with respect to the head 27 is determined by engagement of the retaining member 29 with the top of the flexible hose 15.

Referring to FIGURE 4, there is shown a plurality of the lifting or pick-up cups 113 with each positioned above a bottle 14. The bottles 14 are disposed within a carrying carton'or case 39. The head member 27 connects all of the cylindrical members 19 together so that all of the cylindrical members 19 move together in a vertical direction. The head member 27 and the manifold 18 may be moved together by suitable means (not shown).

As the head member 27 is moved downwardly, the lifting cups move into engagement with the bottles 14. Of course, the tallest of the bottles 14 is initially engaged by the cup 10, which is disposed above it.

As the manifold 18 and the head member 27 continue to move downwardly, the next tallest of the bottles 14 is engaged by the cup 10, which is disposed above it. Since the tallest of the bottles 14 has already engaged its cup 10, further downward movement of its cup 10 is prevented. However, the flexible hose 17 bends sufficiently to permit continued downward movement of the head member 27.

Furthermore, the cylindrical member 19, which surrounds the substantially rigid tubular member 16 attaohed to the cup 19 engaging the tallest of the bottles 14, as the inner surfaces of the retaining members 21, 23 can freely slide relative to the outer surface of the substantially rigid tubular member 16 moves relative to the substantially rigid tubular member 16 because the head member 27 is still moving downwardly while the cup 19 is not. Thus, relative movement occurs between the cylindrical member 1 and the substantially rigid tubular member 16 attached to the cup' 16 engaging the tallest of the bottles 14.

After the second tallest of the bottles 14 has engaged its cup 11 further movement of this cup 11) is prevented. Since the head 27 can continue downward movement because all of the bottles 14 have not been engaged by the cups 10, further downward movement of the cup 10 on the second tallest of the bottles 14 is prevented. This results in relative movement of the cylindrical member 19 with respect to the substantially rigid tubular member 16 in the same manner as described for the tallest bottle 14. Of course, there is continued relative movement of the cylindrical member 19 with respect to the substantially rigid tubular member 16 of the cup 16 fitted over the top of the tallest bottle 14.

This relative movement between the cylindrical member 19 and the substantially rigid tubular member 15 for each of the lifting cups 1% continues until all of the cups 10 are fitted over all of the bottles 14. This ends when the shortest of the bottles 14 has one of the cups 1t) fitted thereover. At this time, the relative positions of the cylindrical members 19 to the substantially rigid tubular members 16 is shown in FIGURE 5.

It will be observed that the maximum movement of the cylindrical member 15 w th respect to the substantially rigid tubular member 16 occurs for the tallest of the bottles 14. For the shortest of the bottles 14, there is no relative movement of the cylindrical member 19 with respect to the substantially rigid tubular member 16 because movement of the manifold 18 and the head member 27 ceases when the lifting cup 10 fits over or engages the shortest of the bottles 14. With the cups 10 positioned over all of the bottles 14 as shown in FIGURE 5, air is supplied from the manifold 18 to the bladders 12 of the cups 10 to cause the bladders 12 to grasp the bottles 14 as more particularly shown and described in the aforesaid McHugh patent. At the same time, air is supplied through the conduit and the connected fittings 36 to the annular chambers 34.

The supplying of air to each of the annular chambers 34 causes all of the flexible tubular members 33 to be pressed into engagement with the rigid tubular members 15 as shown in FIGURE 2. This results in locking all of the cylindrical members 19 to rigid tubular members 16 thereby preventing relative movement therebetween.

The locking of the cylindrical members 19 to the substantially rigid tubular members 16 results in the head member 27 being locked to the lifting cups 1!). As a result, there can be no relative movement in a vertical direction between the lifting cups 10 and the head member 27 when the head member 27 is lifted to remove the bottles 14 from the carrying case or carton 39.

When the head member 27 and the manifold 18 are moved upwardly in the direction of arrow 40 in FIG- URE 6', the bottles 14 are removed from the carrying case or carton 39 as shown in phantom in FIGURE 6. Since the head member 27 is locked to the cups 10, lifting of the head member 27 and the manifold 18 will not create any relative movement of the lifting cups 19. Thus, since the lifting cups 1t! retain the position in which they grasped the bottles 14 as shown in FIGURE 5, the bottoms of the bottles 14 will remain in a single horizontal plane as the bottles are lifted out of the carrying case or carton 39 in the direction of the arrow 40.

After the bottles 14 are removed from the carrying case or carton 39, the entire device is moved in the direction of arrow 41 in FIGURE 6. After the device has been moved in the direction of the arrow 41 to where it is positioned over the conveyor line, the device is moved downwardly in the direction of arrow 42.

When the bottoms of the bottles 14 reach the top of the conveyor line as indicated in phantom at 43, the bottoms of all of the bottles 14 are in the same horizontal plane. Thus, when the bottoms of the bottles 14 reach the conveyor line, they will all contact it simultaneously. Accordingly, when fluid pressure is released from the bladders 12 of the lifting cups 10, all of the bottles 14 will be resting on the conveyor line.

When the bladders 12 cease to grasp the tops of the bottles 14 because of venting of the air pressure through the manifold 18, the annular chambers 34 also are vented through the conduit 35. Because of the resiliency of its material, all of the tubular members 33 release their grips upon the rigid tubular members 16 thereby again making the tubular members 16 freely slidable with respect to the retaining members 20, 23. As a result, upward movement of the manifold 18 and the head member 27 causes all of the lifting cups 10 to return to the same common plane as shown in FIGURE 4 because of gravitational forces acting on the lifting cups. This is because of relative movement between each of the substantially rigid tubular members 16 and the surrounding cylindrical member 19 after the cylindrical rbnemlber 19 is unlocked from the substantially rigid mem- While the manifold 18 has been described as supplying air under pressure, it should be understood that any other suitable fluid may be employed. While the actuation of the cups ltl into grasping engagement with the bottles 14 and the movement of each of the tabular members 33 into locking engagement with the adjacent of the substantially rigid tubular members 16 has been described as occurring simultaneously, it should be understood that the tubular members 33 could be locked to the substantially rigid tubular members 16 after the cups 10 grasp the bottles 14.

An advantage of this invention is that it permits ready transfer of bottles of different heights without any manual arrangement thereof. Another advantage of this invention is that it maintains the bottoms of the bottles of different heights in the same plane when the bottles are being transferred from the carrying case or carton to a conveyor line or the like.

For purposes of exemplification, a particular embodiment of the invention has been shown and described according to the best present understanding thereof. However, it will be apparent that changes and modifications in the arrangement and construction of the parts thereof may be resorted'to without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Having describe-d my invention, I claim:

1. In a device for transporting a plurality of bottles from a first position to a second position, said device having a head, means to move said head from the first position to the second position, and a plurality of bottle grasping means suspended from said head, the improvement comprising relative movement means to permit relative movement between said grasping means and said head whereby said grasping means can accommodate themselves to bottles of diflerent heights upon contacting said bottles, and

locking means to prevent relative sliding movement between said grasping means and said head when so desired whereby said grasping means may be locked relative to said head when moving said head from the first position to the second position.

2. A device as set forth in claim 1 including a fluid supply source, and

fluid connector means between said fluid supply source and said locking means whereby said locking means is operated by fluid pressure.

3. A device as set forth in claim 2 wherein said locking means comprise a plurality of chambers carried by said head for cooperation with said grasping means, each of said chambers having substantially rigid outer walls and substantially flexible inner walls thereby providing an open central core through each of said chambers,

a substantially rigid member carried by each of said bottle grasping means, each of said substantially rigid members passing through the central core of its cooperating chamber,

whereby said flexible inner wall of said chamber may be expanded into contact with said rigid member passing through the central core of said chamber at any position of said rigid member therein upon the introduction of fluid pressure into said chamber from said fluid supply source, thereby locking said grasping means and preventing movement of said grasping means relative to said head.

4. A device as set forth in claim 1 wherein said relative movement means comprises a substantially rigid member carried by each of said bottle grasping means, and

structure defining a plurality of apertures in said head for receiving said substantially rigid members therethrough in a sliding flt relationship,

thereby permitting relative movement between each of said grasping means and said head when said grasping means contact said bottles.

5. A device as set forth in claim 1 wherein each of said substantially rigid members carries at least one stop, said stops being positioned so that said head is located between said stops and said grasping means,

whereby each of said grasping means may be moved any distance relative to said head between a first limit determined by said stop and a second limit determined by said grasping means.

6. A device as set forth in claim 3 wherein said relative movement means comprises said substantially rigid member carried by each of said bottle grasping means, and

structure defining a plurality of apertures in said head for receiving said substantially rigid members therethrough in a sliding fit relationship,

thereby permitting relative movement between each of said grasping means and said head when said grasping means contact said bottles.

7. A device as set forth in claim 6 wherein said substantially rigid member is tubular and including second fluid connector means, said second fluid connector means being substantially flexible and connected between said fluid supply source and the free end of said rigid tubular member,

thereby permitting said grasping means to be operated by fluid pressure from said fluid supply source.

8. A device as set forth in claim 5 including a resilient bushing associated with said stop to cushion the impact upon the contacting of said head by said stop.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,730,279 1/1956 Euock 214309 X 2,863,579 12/1958 Meyer 214-309 2,897,988 8/1959 Enock et a1 214-309 2,929,653 3/1960 Hund et al 294- X 3,198,348 8/1965 Cummings 294-64 X FOREIGN PATENTS 531,467 10/ 1956 Canada. 1,008,645 5/ 1957 Germany.

M. HENSON WOOD, JR., Primary Examiner.

EVON C. BLUNK, Examiner.

C. H. SPADERNA, J. N. ERLICH, Assistant Examiners. 

1. IN A DEVICE FOR TRANSPORTING A PLURALITY OF BOTTLES FROM A FIRST POSITION TO A SECOND POSITION, SAID DEVICE HAVING A HEAD, MEANS TO MOVE SAID HEAD FROM THE FIRST POSITION TO THE SECOND POSITION, AND A PLURALITY OF BOTTLE GRASPING MEANS SUSPENDED FROM SAID HEAD, THE IMPROVEMENT COMPRISING RELATIVE MOVEMENT MEANS TO PERMIT RELATIVE MOVEMENT BETWEEN SAID GRASPING MEANS AND SAID HEAD WHEREBY SAID GRASPING MEANS CAN ACCOMMODATE THEMSELVES TO BOTTLES OF DIFFERENT HEIGHTS UPON CONTACTING SAID BOTTLES, AND LOCKING MEANS TO PREVENT RELATIVE SLIDING MOVEMENT BETWEEN SAID GRASPING MEANS AND SAID HEAD WHEN SO DESIRED WHEREBY SAID GRASPING MEANS MAY BE LOCKED RELATIVE TO SAID HEAD WHEN MOVING SAID HEAD FROM THE FIRST POSITION TO THE SECOND POSITION. 